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Geraldine Ferraro Is Rip-Roaring Mad …

One of the more artful, but deceitful, ploys in Obama’s Wednesday speech was conflating Ferraro’s utterly innocuous comments about race with the hateful rantings of Obama’s own “spiritual adviser.” Here’s one of the quotes from that speech:

“On one end of the spectrum, weve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that its based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, weve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.”

So there you have it, stating the bleeding obvious — that many voters favor Obama because he is black — is conflated with saying the CIA created HIV to wipe out African-Americans. (This is the same CIA, mind you, that was convinced there WMDs in Iraq.)

I love, too, how Obama pretends that Ferraro and Wright are at opposite “ends” of the political spectrum. Um, sorry, Barack — these are two lefties here. The Democrats’ (suddenly cannibalistic) appetite for identity politics is wholly a Democratic problem.

And if that weren’t enough, Ferraro has also called out Obama, again rightly, for throwing his grandma under the bus. “I could not believe that,” she said. “That’s my mother’s generation.”

Really, couldn’t Obama have said, “There are even dear people in my own family who have used racist stereotypes” — and left it at that? Did he really have to brand Grandma as a racist before the whole country?

This flap is going to hurt Obama’s chances greatly. Not just because it casts doubt on the sincerity of his “post-racial” appeal, but because it cuts into the very question of his decency. One of the greatest advantages Obama once had is that, unlike Clinton, he didn’t seem like the sort of politician who would say or do anything, or sell anyone out, to get elected. That no longer appears to be the case.

A few months ago, I would have told you Obama would rout McCain in a general election. Now, if he wins, I suspect it will be in a squeaker — and that’s assuming he even gets to the general election.

All of which proves, once again, that long-range political predictions are for idiots.